R-E-S-P-E-C-T; doesn’t mean a thing to me*

The OED should revise their definition of respect. The word now conjures up images of a smirking G.G. Galloway or feelings of uncontrollable rage against the PM and his spin machine. I respect the need to respect our fellow men, but I object to the use of the word to describe a task force that will be little more than a group of power-hungry police-wannabes telling people off for inconsiderate behaviour. (Um, it’s a given that I also object to the formation of said task force and all other over-the-top gimmicky measures Blair is suggesting. I’m starting to think I don’t want to return to a UK that is nothing more than a nanny state. On the other extreme is the free-market that is the US, and that’s not working out so well either…)

Changed title ‘cos I now have Aretha Franklin’s song in my head. Yeah, and apologies for tainting the song and its memory by association.

Update 2: Another cultural reference springs to mind:

Update 3:Boris (Johnson) makes two pertinent points (apart from his opinion of James Blunt and the Kaiser Chiefs):

1. My objection is not just that these measures are centralising and authoritarian – an objection that is unlikely to cut much ice with people enduring anti-social behaviour. The trouble with this stuff is that it once again lulls people into the belief that the Government is really going to sort out their problems, when the reality is that the whole of the new anti-yobbo programme, parenting classes and all, will be about as much use to thug-plagued estates as Blair’s doomed plan to march them to cashpoints for on-the-spot fines – i.e. no use whatever.

2. I dislike his gimmicks because at every stage personal or communal responsibility is replaced by the state, and the more completely government assumes responsibility for problem kids, the less people will understand that part of civility is having the courage to reprimand someone for spitting on a granny, and not pass by on the other side. If we continue to treat comparatively small acts of thuggishness as matters purely for the Government, then we will never get thuggishness off our streets, and we the British public will never recover our individual and collective courage as long as we think that nanny Blair is going to deal with the problem himself.